Hello, I'm Paul Richards with the Latest From Science.
New research suggests bald men are at a higher risk of suffering from severe
COVID-19 symptoms. And in general,
men are at a greater risk than women of contracting the disease.
It's a pretty small study, but worth chatting more about. To do that,
I'm joined by Academy Fellow and biochemical geneticist,
Professor Jenny Graves from La Trobe University. Hi Jenny.
Thanks for joining us today.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Now, can you tell us what is the link between COVID-19 and baldness?
Well,
it was a big surprise and it was first discovered by a couple of dermatologists
who were interested in baldness and they found that in a small number
of cases in Spain,
that most of the men who were seriously ill or,
dying with COVID we're bald.
Something like 79 per cent of men.
And that's way more than the average number of bald men in the community.
So they thought, well, there must be something going on here.
And that's really how it started.
At the moment there's a lot of research going on,
but normal peer review processes are you know, delayed, what
size was this study and how reliable is the information?
Well, the first study was I think 122 men,
and the second study was also small.
But the results were so startling that I think a lot of people took
notice and I believe there are more bigger studies going on that are probably
better controlled for age and sex and that sort of thing.
So it does seem to be a real thing and it seems to be not just Spain,
but all over the place.
Fascinating. And the other,
a bit of research that's been going on is looking at the difference between men
and women and men in general seem to be more
susceptible to COVID-19. Can you explain why?
Yes, that came out very quickly. It looked like all over the world, you know,
in China and also in New York,
it was more like 61 or 62 per cent of people
seriously ill and hospitalised with COVID-19 were men,
but it does seem like being a male is a risk factor and being a bald
man is particularly a risk factor.
So where do we go next with this sort of information?
Obviously it needs to be further verified and looked into,
but could it be useful in developing treatments?
Well, very useful. And of course, people want to know, well why,
what's baldness got to do with being sick with a virus?
But we already knew that baldness is really
a product of hyper androgen.
So a lot of the male hormone androgen is
linked very strongly to baldness.
And so it looks like having a lot of the male hormone is a risk
factor.
And that actually does make a certain amount of sense because we know
that the androgens bind to the cell in the
androgen receptor and the androgen receptor binding triggers
another protein on the surface of the cell to take a
chop out of the virus spike protein,
and that's required for the virus spike protein to actually get into the cell.
So there is a perfectly sensible link,
so that looks scientifically reasonably good.
And so studies are now looking to see whether people
who have been treated for other reasons with anti-androgens are
much less susceptible. And, in fact,
it's quite common to treat people with anti-androgens particularly,
men with prostate cancer are very frequently treated with
androgen deficiency treatment.
And so there was quite a big study done in Italy,
looking at prostate cancer patients,
some of whom had been treated and others who hadn't and it looked like the
treated cohort was much less susceptible to serious disease.
And so I know those trials are being replicated in the United States now.
You tell me,
is baldness a link to any other susceptibility to other health conditions
or diseases.
Not to my knowledge. I mean, there are many,
many other diseases linked to androgen.
Either too much or too little androgen will give you all kinds
of problems.
Benign prostate enlargement is linked to too much androgen,
and that's why you use an androgen deficiency therapy.
But there are some women who have a lot of androgens too - women with polycystic
ovary disease.
And then there are people who have too little androgen and they have other
conditions as well.
So the androgen is linked to a number of diseases,
not so much baldness.
Jenny, can you tell me,
are there any other genetic factors that are being investigated that could help
us to better understand who's more susceptible to COVID-19?
Well, there are lots of very big studies done now looking at what is called the
whole genome.
So looking for associations between becoming very sick with the virus
and particular genetic variance.
So you're looking at variants all over the genome and they found that there
seemed to be two spots in the genome,
particularly associated with becoming very sick with COVID-19.
One is a spot we know which contains genes,
that code the ABO blood groups. And these again are receptors,
they're proteins on the surface of cells, and so again,
they may interfere with the virus getting in,
but the other patch is a patch of six or seven genes on Chromosome
3. And we don't actually know quite what they do,
but there's at least one of those genes has something to do with the ACE2
receptor.
So it may be again that it will interfere or
exacerbate the binding of the virus to the cell and the virus getting in the
cell.
But there may be a lot more little places around the genome that have genes
that either make you more susceptible or make you more resistant.
And that wouldn't be at all surprising for instance, with the AIDS virus,
it looks like there's probably 50 genes that contribute in some way or another
in making you either more resistant or more susceptible.
And so that's very common for all diseases.
What about the way that male and female immune systems work,
do they react differently? And, you know, for instance,
is something like the man flu real?
Well,
it seems to be a very general observation that women have a
stronger immune system than men,
and that's not just the COVID-19 virus.
That's all sorts of different viruses and bacteria and other pathogens as well.
So women seem to be having a tougher immune response,
and we don't quite know why,
but it seems like two X chromosomes is better than one,
when it comes to the immune system,
the X chromosome has at least 60 immune response genes on it.
And having two copies of it means that you've got actually not just double
the amount of it, but slightly different versions.
And that's really good for the immune system because it means they can,
the immune system can recognise a wider variety of
proteins in pathogens that are infected.
So it does look like females have a tougher immune system than
males.
That's not all good because women suffer more from auto immune diseases,
which is when the immune system turns on itself.
So it's a delicate balance. You want just the right amount.
So Jenny,
is this why it's important to study the disease and its effects on both sexes?
Yes, very much so. In fact, that all diseases because men
and women are biologically very different.
Genetically they're very different physiologically. They're very different.
Women are not just small men.
And there are a lot of diseases which are much more serious in one sex than the
other. You know, diseases like Parkinson's is,
is mainly males, diseases like Alzheimer's disease, mainly females.
We don't quite know why.
Also some treatments work well in women,
but not in men and other treatments work well in men, but not in women.
For instance, aspirin is very effective for heart disease in men,
but for stroke in women.
So you really need to know this before you go into diagnoses
or treatment.
Well, thank you very much for all the work that you're doing on,
on this front and for joining us today, you're very welcome, Paul.
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